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Ben's Week In Review: December 21

After a very busy week, I don't have much energy left, but...well, I can summon enough for the readers. ;)

NOW I remember why I love Final Fantasy

I've been reluctant to jump on the anti-Square-Enix bandwagon over the past year, and I've often argued that nothing they've done can be considered as "biased." I could consider all their moves and decisions as logical. But recently, I've become more annoyed as I've started to realize that there most certainly is some bias going on over at S-E headquarters (how else can one explain something like Star Ocean: The Last Hope being a Xbox 360 exclusive?), and I was all set to jump on that aforementioned bandwagon. Then I saw the FFXIII and FF Versus XIII trailers, and it was like a giant bell went off in my head. See, so long as they're capable of something like that, I am forced to remain a fan; I can't help it. I fully realize there's no gameplay in either of those videos, but let's face it: the visual has always been a major component of any FF experience, and dear God...that's a set of visuals. Downright beautiful from front to back, and my hype/psych meter just maxed out for both titles in question. Seriously, didn't yours?

I know everyone wants to be negative and focus on the fact that it's just CGI sequences and they don't mean anything and blah blah blah. Yeah, well, they do mean something. At the very least, they mean Square-Enix is once again going balls-out to deliver a jaw-dropping Final Fantasy title (or in this case, titles), and that's good enough for me. At least for now. ;)

Hope you enjoyed the interview

Our big exclusive Eat Sleep Play interview is up, and I'm hoping everyone here enjoyed the read. I had a great time talking to both Scott Campbell and Dave Jaffe, and as I mentioned in the conclusion of that interview, I could've spoken to both for a very long time. Look, I've conducted many interviews in the past - most of which outside the game industry - and at no point did I feel like I was able to relate to the interviewee. Obviously, all three of us are gamers, so that's where the connection came from. But when speaking to a musician or comedian or what-have-you, I was never quite able to establish that kind of easy rapport. Sure, I'd get along well with plenty of those celebrities, but while you're talking to them, you realize that - deep down - you really don't have a lot in common. With Jaffe and Campbell...hell, we had everything in common. The other interesting point I took from that process was that Jaffe must've been misquoted and misinterpreted about seven billion times in his career. I mean, anybody who uses that many disclaimers when speaking must've experienced that problem.

It's actually kind of funny. He'll say something, and even if it's not a particularly strong statement, he'll add a quick disclaimer so certain people won't be offended. For instance, he said he thought Sony had the best exclusives then immediately said, "not to say Microsoft doesn't have great exclusives." You know, stuff like that. I'm chalking that up to a whole lot of so-called journalists misquoting him for the sake of starting huge rumors. But anyway, the whole thing was pretty cool.

Personal gaming update

So I'm just waiting patiently for Christmas when I can get a fresh haul of games to play. I have enjoyed playing Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode Two; Sony sent me a voucher code for the game yesterday, and I've always loved PA. The game is pretty good, too (the review will go up in just a few minutes). Other than that, I played a little Resistance 2 with Val, some online Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds with a friend of mine, and got most of the way through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Yep, again. I play that game a few times a year, and it's easier to do than trying to play through either FFVII or FFT. ;) Of course, I have a touch of cabin fever due to this unbelievable winter weather we've had over the past few days, so I'm just about ready to climb the walls... But hey, that's what games are for, right?

As for "the girl," who I'm afraid just about every loyal reader is aware of at this point, I have more than a few things to report. But I'm waiting until the year is over...so you're just gonna have to wait for the third and final installment of "Once Upon A Time..." Heh.

It's easy to explain away the Star Ocean thing. It's Star Ocean. Even if it has a big following as far as RPG-heads go it has absolutely no appeal to people outside that demographic. I've barely even heard of the series. They don't think that they can recoup the costs of developing on 2 consoles so they chose the one with the largest base and are going to hope for the best. If it somehow does attain a mass market following you will immediately see plans port the thing over. And if Square was able to somehow trick MS into paying to make that game exclusive then it's even more incentive, it's like free capital.

With Final Fantasy, you have the biggest name in RPGs. It has TONS of Mass-Market potential, at that point Square is willing to dish out capital to develop for the less popular system.

The only thing, THE ONLY thing, that square has done to piss me off is not making games for 360. Or even completely ignoring my platform of choice. It's the fact that they are making the PS3 version of FF XIII and THEN porting the game to 360. There is NO reason to hold the game in America until that port process is finished. THAT is messed up.

I don't believe 360 owners are interested in SO. I just don't. I DO know that Star Oceans have ONLY been on Sony consoles in the past, which means there are plenty of fans out there who likely own a PS3 now.

Square Enix Corporate Director Shinji Hashimoto said. "It's not like we're canceling or delaying the PS3 version at all! It's more of an added bonus for 360 fans. We won't be putting them at a disadvantage in any way."

So we should see the PS3 version come out first and those with 360s might have to wait a bit longer for the port to be completed. That is if they live up to their word on not delaying the PS3 version.

Flying_Killzone, I beg to differ. Although chronologically speaking, it is true that the release of the 360 version had to be delayed for the ps3 one, in the end, the game had to be squeezed down for the sake of the 360 DVD9 format. So, 360 owners had to wait, but ps3 owners missed out on having an even bigger GTA4.

That's not entirely true Ben. The original Star Ocean came out on SNES. And one of them was a Game Boy Color game. With the exception of the 2 PSP games Star Ocean has ALWAYS been released on the console with the largest base. By that thinking the newest Star Ocean should come out on the Wii. But the Wii has limitations that the developer probably didn't want to deal with so it was down to 360 or PS3. 360 has the larger base.

But that being said. Yes Star Ocean has more or less been a Sony Exclusive. However in this generation tons of former PS1 and PS2 owners have migrated over to the 360. And when you add that to the fact that there has been an extreme dearth of JRPGs on the PS3, and the fact that many (be they good or bad) have been released on 360 it's very much within the realm of possibility that a sizable portion of former Star Ocean fans have migrated to 360. It's also much easier for hardcore fans of Star Ocean to buy a 360 for $200 to play their favorite game then buy a PS3 for twice that much.

I definitely agree with you about the migration of consumers. However, the jrpg fanbase is definitely a hardcore one. And most probably, those are the same ones who would've stayed with Sony in anticipation of their awaited titles, unfortunately to be disappointed. Let's hope for WKC.

FFxiii had a very Star Wars-esque quality about it. Versus, with it's more contemporary motif, seemed like a completely new look for SE's jrpg's. How they share the same name? I don't know. Will they tie them somehow? Or is it just another example of Japanese quirky and abstract naming conventions? Don't know. But I do know my interest has been piqued for Versus, at least.
The Campbell/Jaffe interview was good stuff, and I'm sure other sites will be taking notes. I was a little disappointed in the past to hear Jaffe breaking off from Sony before the development of GOW3, but to hear it getting his seal of approval so far, is reassuring. Obviously, Gears2 was his standard for best graphics, and to hear that GOW3 looks even better than Gears2 says something. At any rate, I wish him all the success, and will be watching their future endeavours closely. He has nothing to be nervous about. It is because of his one-of-a-kind creative insight and original work that ps3 owners will be treated to what his surely to be one of the greater masterpieces of this generation.
My gaming update: played through POP. Wasn't initially impressed, but at the end, I loved it through and through. Both DS and POP have changed my mind completely around about what those big-name publishers are capable of, providing that they put their dollars in the right direction.
This year of gaming has been different from the past ones, not just because of the utter confusion of having to pick from the inundating slew of back2back titles, but because not a single one of the ones I played were duds. I didn't have this much fun even in my youngling years. With the oncoming lull, I'll finally have time to get back to MG Essentials before playing the 4th milestone. And thereafter, I'll be getting back to my original love, WipeoutHD, and finally dig into LBP. Great year for gaming, and a great year for Psxextreme.Last edited by Aftab on 12/21/2008 2:10:10 AM

Not to invite hatred, but I still don't see the big deal about fawning over pre-rendered trailers...unless it can be verified the trailers were rendered using the actual game engine. That aside, yes, the Versus trailer looks more intriguing than the regular FFXIII trailer, but I still don't know what to expect between them.

Aside from everything else, I'd kinda like to see PSN offer more 'mini' games. There are some decent PSN-only games, but (and I'm not an Xbox 360 owner by choice) is seems Xbox Live has FAR more 'mini' games available. Maybe Sony should offer up a development kit for 'mini' games like M$ has? I think that's one area where M$ is winning and gaining a lot of interest.

Something else I don't see Sony leveraging is (when they HAVE a decent IP as a movie studio), either making a related title a PS3 exclusive or at least initially a PS3 exclusive (e.g. GHOSTBUSTERS???).

Didn't Sony take over the overly fabulous Psygnosis, which made some of the best late 80's/early 90's games for Atari/Amiga computers? I would LOVE to see that owl graphic again show up on a new great game! Updated SHADOW OF THE BEAST or LIBERATOR or the like?

im still hesitant on giving S-E any slack. ill admit the videos were freakin gorgeous but im still holding quite a grudge. maybe if they release ff13 on the ps3 first ill cut them some slack but if they make us wait i think id rather send them a letter telling them to keep it cause i dont want it. lookin forward to reading the third part of the once upon a time thing. MARRY CHRISTMAS everyone.